Internet site targeted to stop sexual predators

Adriana Colindres

Saturday

May 26, 2007 at 12:01 AMMay 26, 2007 at 10:24 PM

SPRINGFIELD -- After issuing a subpoena to the online site MySpace.com, Attorney General Lisa Madigan last week received the names of nearly 600 registered Illinois sex offenders who could be using MySpace to prey on children.

Editors: For release Sunday, May 27, and thereafter

By ADRIANA COLINDRES

STATE CAPITOL BUREAU

SPRINGFIELD -- After issuing a subpoena to the online site MySpace.com, Attorney General Lisa Madigan last week received the names of nearly 600 registered Illinois sex offenders who could be using MySpace to prey on children.

MySpace identified 584 of its members as Illinois offenders, Madigan said. Of the 584, 19 are in prison and 17 are on parole from prison, she said.

A total of about 7,000 MySpace members who are believed to be sex offenders, including the ones from Illinois, recently were kicked off the social-networking site. Madigan and attorneys general throughout the United States sought information from MySpace about sex offenders with profiles posted on the site.

“As the attorney general, I’m painfully aware that sex offenders are using the Internet as a way to find their next victims,” she said.

Madigan’s office is tracking down which county the Illinois offenders were convicted in and is sending letters to county law enforcement officials so they can determine who might be violating probation or parole. In some cases, probation or parole conditions might require a convicted offender to stay off the Internet, she said.

The information from MySpace might represent only “the tip of the iceberg” because the 7,000 offenders who have been identified so far used their real names in posting profiles, the attorney general said. Online profiles, which typically include a person’s name and photos, can be posted under fictitious names.

Madigan’s office is working with other social-networking sites, such as Facebook and Xanga, to get information about sex offenders who might be using them.

Sexual predators get on the sites to pinpoint their next victim, Madigan said. In one tactic, sex offenders pose as children or teens to engage in online — and eventually inappropriate — conversation with real children or teens.

A few years ago, parents and law enforcement officials focused on chat rooms as a big online threat to children, but the focus has shifted.

“Most kids have left the chat rooms,” Madigan said. “Most kids are getting onto MySpace because it’s a way for them to meet other kids. It’s a way for them to socialize. They just don’t know that while that is not unreasonable for them to do, there is a dark side to the Internet, there are dangers out there on the Internet.”

The attorney general’s office is involved in various outreach efforts to educate parents, children and others about Internet safety. Her office also oversees the Illinois Internet Crimes Against Children task force that pursues Internet predators. Information is available online at www.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov.